Sarah, the American protagonist in The Glass Kingdom, by Lawrence Osborne, is young woman on the run with $200,000 she obtained by forgery. She takes refuge in a glass-walled high rise in Bangkok known as the Kingdom, posing as a trust baby, waiting for things to cool down. Sarah is determined to keep her story (and the fact that she has $200,000 in a suitcase) secret, which becomes more difficult when a murder occurs. Much of the story is about the characters in the Kingdom, who are not all what they seem to be. Intrigues is in the air and there’s a voyeuristic characteristic to the way they watch each other. The story also is about class in Thailand (layered by wealth, old money versus new money, and nationalities), corruption, and civil unrest that threatens the privilege and refuge of the rich. The author describes the atmosphere in Bangkok and in the Kingdom so evocatively that it’s easy for the reader to disappear into that world. Multiple points of view are utilized. The last lines in the book are the thoughts of Pop, the caretaker of the Kingdom: “… like karma, life itself always went on, unending and unfair in equal measure, like all things that have been ordained and yet are impossible to see in advance.” Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says:
